ANTI-FASCIST ECONOMIC POLICY

Almost everywhere in the world, democracies are facing a challenge from authoritarian movements. The catalyst for this is an economic policy and a neoliberal order in which the wealthy are becoming ever richer, whilst the vast majority of society is experiencing increasing economic hardship, tormented by experiences of social decline or fears of falling behind, and finding life gradually becoming unaffordable.

Unemployment, inflation and the associated „affordability crisis“ are the fertile ground on which the slogans of right-wing pied pipers take root. That is why we need an „anti-fascist economic policy“, as Isabella M. Weber puts it in her much-acclaimed and much-discussed bestseller of the same name.

What would be the guiding principles of such an „anti-fascist economic policy“, and how can it be put into practice in times of multiple crises, a chaotic world order – and in the face of the climate crisis? The economist discusses this with the Finance Minister and soon-to-be Vice-Chancellor, Markus Marterbauer.

Isabella M. Weber (* 1987 in Nuremberg) is a German economist. She is an associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the USA and heads the China research programme at the university’s Political Economy Research Institute. Weber actively participates in public debates on economic policy, particularly regarding strategic price controls as an effective measure against inflation.

Markus Marterbauer (* 26 February 1965 in Uppsala, Sweden) is an Austrian economist and politician. He has been Austria’s Minister of Finance (SPÖ) in the Stocker federal government since 3 March 2025.
From 2011 to 2025, he was Chief Economist at the Vienna Chamber of Labour. Prior to that, he was an economic researcher at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO). Marterbauer was Vice-President of the Fiscal Council, an expert on the Budget Committee of the Austrian National Council and a member of the Advisory Council for Economic and Social Affairs; for many years, he also chaired the Dr Benedikt Kautsky Working Group.

Moderation
Robert Misik, Author and journalist

Isabella M. Weber:
Anti-fascist economic policy
Suhrkamp Verlag, October